Polynesian Religion: From New Zealand To Hawaii

Polynesian Religion: From New Zealandto HawaiiBy David Leeming, The Handy Mythology Answer Book on 08.24.17Word Count 1,692Level MAXIn Hawaiian mythology, Pele is the goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes. Photo by: Ron Cogswell/Volcanoes NationalPark Visitor Center.The native peoples of the Pacific Islands — such as Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Hawaii —are Polynesians, as are the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. The term“Polynesian” comes from the Greek word meaning “many islands.”Polynesian religion, in general, directly reflects a reality involving the sea and the naturalenvironment. Gods reflect aspects of nature and its activities. For the Polynesians, religionexpresses an animistic understanding in which all aspects of life contain spiritual power, ormana.This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.1

Where did the Polynesians come from?The origins of the Polynesians has always been a controversial topic. The dominant theoryholds that in about 4500 B.C., a migration began from south China of people speaking anAustronesian language, the family of which the Polynesian languages are members. It isthought that Taiwan was the first land to be colonized by these people, who eventually movedto what are now New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.Other scholars argue a much longer presence in Papua New Guinea and other islands. Stillothers suggest a mingling of ancient Melanesian peoples already on the Pacific Islands withthe Austronesian settlers, resulting in what today we call Polynesians. Whatever their origins,we know that the Polynesians were skilled seafarers and that their migration from island toisland in double-hulled canoes involved that skill. We know that by about A.D. 1250,Polynesian culture dominated in the so-called Polynesian Triangle that includes Hawaii in thenorth, Easter Island in the east and New Zealand in the south.Polynesian pantheonsNot surprisingly, given the vast distances between the islands, various Polynesian culturesand religious beliefs emerged over the centuries. There are, however, distinctive correlationsbetween these religions and, especially, their pantheons. The Maori pantheon is ruled byRangi (Sky Father) and Papa (Earth Mother). In Hawaii, Ao and Po were the equivalents ofRangi and Papa. In Tahiti, the supreme male god, the equivalent of Rangi, was Ta’aroa.Sea gods were important among the Polynesians. For the Maori, this was Tangaroa, a son ofRangi and Papa. Other Polynesians called him Tangaloa. The Hawaiians knew him asKanaloa. Tawhiri was the Maori storm god, another son of the original Sky-Earth couple. Tu,or Tumatauenga, was the Maori god of war. Tane was the god of the forest. In Hawaii, he wasKane. In Hawaii, one of the most popular deities was Pele, a goddess of volcanoes, capable,as was the Indian Kali, of great violence. The most popular of all Polynesian deities was Maui.More detailed pantheonic family structures become clearer in the stories of creation.The story of PelePele was a descendant of Sky and Earth. She was rivaled in power only by her older sisters,the goddesses of the sea and of the snow-capped mountains, who worked to curb her naturalvolcanic fury. Her favorite sister was Hi’iaka, who had been born of an egg kept warm by Pele,under her arm, until the hatching.Pele and Hi’iaka lived out of the reach of their two threatening sisters in the fiery crater ofKilauea, high above the sea on the Big Island. One day in a dream, Pele heard the sound ofdrum beats and dancing and was so attracted to the sound that she sent her spirit to follow it—all the way to Kauai. There she witnessed wonderful dancing and music and, disguisingherself as a beautiful young woman, she joined in. Soon after, she was noticed by a handsomeThis article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.2

chief named Lohiau, and the two became lovers. But the time came when Pele’s spirit neededto return to her sleeping and dreaming body on the Big Island, or else the fires of her volcanowould have died out. So her spirit left Lohiau. But now the lovers longed for each other, soPele sent her brother Lono to Hi’iaka to ask her to bring Lohiau to her.Hi’iaka managed to overcome monsters and other trials and to make her way to Kauai. Thereshe found that Lohiau had died, but she succeeded in reviving him. Some say that Pelebecame impatient, assuming that Lohiau and Hi’iaka were having an affair, so she attackedthem with her fire. In one version of the story, Hi’iaka and Lohiau did, in fact, end up as lovers,even in the face of Pele’s rage.Polynesian creation storiesThere are as many Polynesian creation stories as there are individual Polynesian societies.Even within societies there are variants. One creation story with versions in most of the islandsis this Maori story. According to the story, it was Rangi and Papa who existed in the beginning.Rangi was the masculine force in the universe, associated with sky and light. His consortPapa was the feminine force of earth and darkness. As in the Greek, Egyptian and many othercreation stories, the first parents were so close together that a separation was called for inorder that creation might continue. It fell to the children of Rangi and Papa to do somethingabout the dilemma. Their son Tu (Tumatauenga), god of war, suggested that their parents bekilled.The others disagreed and decided that the parents should be pushed apart. First Rongo, thecultivated food god, tried to execute the separation but failed. Next, Tangaroa, god of the sea,with the help of his brother, god of wild food, tried and failed. Finally, it was Tane, god of theforest, who succeeded. As he lay on his back and separated his parents by pushing upwardwith his legs, the primal couple screamed in agony. But room now existed for further creation.Room also existed, however, for a “war in heaven” between the children of Rangi and Papa.In one Hawaiian story, more credit for creation is given to Kane. It was he who created Rangi(Ao) and Papa (Po) by throwing a calabash into the air, where it broke apart forming Sky andEarth. In some Maori stories the equivalent of Kane was Io, who created Rangi and Papa exnihilo—from nothing. In the Hawaiian version, Kane then assigned various aspects of thenatural world to his brothers. Kanaloa, for instance, would control the sea, Ku the forests. Thegods then created the first man and woman out of clay.The war in heavenAs in so many traditional religions, the creation process of the many Polynesian groupsinvolves a war in heaven. The Maori version of this archetype takes place immediately afterthe separation of Rangi and Papa. Tawhiri, the storm god, was angry at the separation of hisparents, so he left his siblings and went up to join his father in the sky. There, joined by hischildren, winds and clouds, he attacked the forests of Tane and tore up the seas of Tangaroa.This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.3

He also attacked his brothers dedicated to cultivated and wild foods. His attacks caused hisbrothers to fight against each other as well. Finally, it was Tu, the war god, who stood upagainst Tawhiri and made peace in heaven—heaven being the same as the world—for it wason Papa’s earthy being that this war took place.Polynesian flood storiesThere are many Polynesian flood stories. In Tahiti, the sea god became enraged when afisherman’s fish hooks caught in his hair. He sent a flood to cover the whole world except forthe tops of the highest mountains. The Samoans say that a flood occurred when the gods offire and water fought each other. The Maori tell of Ruatapu, a woman who became angry atthe nobility and lured their children into a canoe and then sank the canoe in the ocean. Only aman named Paikea somehow survived. Now, Ruatapu got the gods to send a huge flood todestroy the world. Paikea, an archetypal flood hero like Noah, was saved on a mountaintopwith the help of a goddess.Maui the tricksterAs in the case of the Australian Aborigines and the Chinese, heroes are difficult to differentiatefrom deities in Polynesian religions. There are, however, demigods or culture heroes who aresometimes depicted as gods but sometimes seem to be clearly human. The most famous ofthese figures is Maui, who belongs to all Polynesians.Maui was a trickster, and like the tricksters of Australian Aborigine religions, he also playedthe role of culture hero and can best be considered in that context as a demigod rather than asa god.In the many versions of his history, Maui takes on the aspects of the archetypal hero,beginning with a miraculous conception and birth. He is also clearly a culture hero, playing arole in the creation process and the civilizing of his people. And he is just as clearly, likeCoyote in North America or Ananse in Africa, a trickster whose acts can cause difficulties inthe world, even bringing death to creation. In one story, Maui is said to have been conceivedwhen a woman looked at the rising sun. The Maori say that when a premature son was born toMaui’s mother, she wrapped the child in a lock of hair from her top knot (tiki tiki) and thenthrew him into the sea. Rangi, the sun, and presumably his father, rescued him and raised himin heaven, but when grown he emerged from the sea as Maui Ti’itit’i. In Hawaii, the island ofMaui was named after him.Upon his emergence, Maui became a culture hero/trickster. In most Polynesian islands he iscredited with helping the people by catching the sun and slowing it down to provide more timefor work and with bringing the islands themselves up from the depths, making him a type ofearth-diver creator. One of Maui’s greatest feats was tricking the goddess of fire into revealingthe secret of that element. In Samoa, they say that Maui descended to the Underworld—auniversal heroic act—to retrieve fire.This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.4

Maui died in the act of trying to overcome a female monster and death goddess, Hine-nui-tepo. In this case, the monster won and Maui was cut in half. By dying, Maui, who had soughtimmortality for humans, allowed death to continue in the world.This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.5

Quiz1Read the following sentence from the introduction [paragraphs 1-2].Polynesian religion, in general, directly reflects a reality involving thesea and the natural environment.Which sentence from the section "The Story Of Pele" BEST supports this idea?2(A)She was rivaled in power only by her older sisters, the goddesses of the seaand of the snow-capped mountains, who worked to curb her natural volcanicfury.(B)Her favorite sister was Hi’iaka, who had been born of an egg kept warm byPele, under her arm, until the hatching.(C)But the time came when Pele’s spirit needed to return to her sleeping anddreaming body on the Big Island, or else the fires of her volcano would havedied out.(D)Some say that Pele became impatient, assuming that Lohiau and Hi’iaka werehaving an affair, so she attacked them with her fire.Read the following statements.1.2.3.4.The majority of Polynesian stories involve stories of gods going towar because the myths are reflective of everyday life.Despite being separated by vast distances and oceans, manyPolynesian cultures share similarities in their pantheons.Many Polynesian stories, while unique to Polynesian cultures,contain basic elements similar to non-Polynesian stories aroundthe world.For Polynesians, creating stories involving nature allowed them toanswer specific questions about humans' place in nature.Which statements accurately reflect two CENTRAL ideas of the article?(A)1 and 2(B)2 and 3(C)3 and 4(D)4 and 1This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.6